A taste of Alternative Edcation by Vic Hopkins https://padlet.com/vichopkinsx/vichopkinsx Finding ways to educate en-us 2018-03-13 17:02:49 UTC 2025-08-17 02:40:40 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Condos.png Part one vichopkinsx https://padlet.com/vichopkinsx/vichopkinsx/wish/241547434 2018 was a new start for me, not only would it be the year I complete my degree but it was the year I started my own family with the birth of my son. It was very daunting returning to university after missing several weeks and having to catch up on modules and even more daunting knowing I had to making some sort of online learning platform to describe a journey I hadn't even started. However having my son motivated me to want to learn more about Alternative Education, as this would explore methods, pedagogy and social circumstances that may effect him in the future! ]]> 2018-03-13 18:01:58 UTC https://padlet.com/vichopkinsx/vichopkinsx/wish/241547434 Part two vichopkinsx https://padlet.com/vichopkinsx/vichopkinsx/wish/248967725
Playing catch up!
To be able to understand what the module was about I decided to look at the previous power points made by the tutor and then summarise them on paper with what they meant to me. I figured that the module title was pretty self explanatory and that it was just about looking at different and new forms of pedagogy, which is exactly what I’m doing making this padlet as it’s very new to me! I like traditional ways of learning, perhaps not a sit down exam but putting pen to paper really helps me learn more, than being talked at or just reading. “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge”  - Albert Einstein. The picture below shows the creative expression and knowledge I gathered from the power points created by the teacher. 
]]> 2018-04-05 17:10:58 UTC https://padlet.com/vichopkinsx/vichopkinsx/wish/248967725 Part three vichopkinsx https://padlet.com/vichopkinsx/vichopkinsx/wish/248989169 Looking back at Lou’s presentation number three I felt like a lot of it was about power. As I was sitting at home feeding the baby I read through the slides and was left thinking about who had the power of the knowledge? As I didn’t attend the lecture or seminar Lou couldn’t direct my learning in any direction and I was left to summarise the slides myself... did this mean I was the power holder of my own knowledge. It was up to me what I took from the slides and what I wanted to process.  The thought of this led me to relate to Micheal Apple. Micheal explained that “until we take seriously the extent to which education is caught up in the real world of shifting and unequal power relations, we will be living in a world divorced from reality”. Although I did not take this literally I thought it corresponded with my previous statement perfectly. If I didn’t take the degree seriously and didn’t accept my own responsibility for learning knowledge then I wouldn’t be able to finish my degree as I couldn’t attend the sessions taught by Lou. Although it is traditionally thought to learn is to attend classes and receive the knowledge, I had to accept that this wasn’t the case and take liability for the power of learning to be shifted on to myself, did this mean I was “othered”?]]> 2018-04-05 17:57:31 UTC https://padlet.com/vichopkinsx/vichopkinsx/wish/248989169 Part four vichopkinsx https://padlet.com/vichopkinsx/vichopkinsx/wish/248997184 As I really enjoyed the last power point slides about power I looked In to more of it in depth. However I also found that the slides about language also related to power. As you read this your knowledge is being fed to you by the language I am choosing to use. To write a sentence about the slides using a “semantic field of educational lexis” (such as that - a level English language terminology there) you would probably find yourself misunderstanding what I am writing if you are not actually interested in what I am saying. When we read books or journals by people who are supposed to be influential in the educational field do we really understand what they are trying to convey? You have to spend time understanding what theorists are writing because of the language they are using...which can cause problems with your cognitive bandwidth. Elder sharif comments on this explaining that feelings “of busyness leaves you busier then before” which I take to mean, as you are busy trying to understand what the theorists are explaining you are even busier trying to understand the meaning of the language they use. This leaves the power of the knowledge to you and how much you want to understand... how eager you are to understand it...or is that pile of washing up that needs doing more important right now? ]]> 2018-04-05 18:15:17 UTC https://padlet.com/vichopkinsx/vichopkinsx/wish/248997184 Part five vichopkinsx https://padlet.com/vichopkinsx/vichopkinsx/wish/250399523 A student studying the same course as me summaries marketisation using quotes i totally agree with. I commented on her post to show my input and thoughts and considered it necessary to share it on my padlet too...  my response comes from a personal experience when attending another university.
My response.... “I totally agree with your experience in relations to the first quote by Diane Reay. In my first year of study at Manchester Met, one of the modules related to education and the community. To get a better idea of the community I had decided to live in I took up a job in a local nursery. Although I have worked in nurseries here in Blackburn for many years I didn't expect it to be so different. As the nurseries here in the local area follow the structure of the EYFS (early years foundation stages) it was easy to follow as we had all the equipment and space with in the nursery to complete each part of the syllabus. Days were spent playing with the children, but 90% of the time the purpose behind the game or song we were singing was to be able to tick a box of achievement on their personal EYFS books that would move them up to the next stage. However when arriving at the nursery near Salford, Manchester I realised this wasn't going to be the case. They did not have EYFS booklets, they didn't have lots of paper and pens and clip boards, just a room with a hut in the middle and a few gates to separate areas. I would find my self almost bored by the time mid-day reached as their holistic play resources were very limited and I could only think of so many counting or letter games that could associate with wooden building blocks or sand (even though the children were loving finding the blue circle in the sand). But this was the problem, I was so used to the routine of ticking boxes that I had forgotten how to incorporate and use my imagination and this is something that children from the ages of 1-4 use to learn, so how could I possible show them something new without having an imagination? The focus is completely on statics and numbers and achieving "outstanding" ofsted registered learning environments, making us forget why we are their to teach in the first place! :)” ]]> 2018-04-10 17:33:08 UTC https://padlet.com/vichopkinsx/vichopkinsx/wish/250399523 Part six vichopkinsx https://padlet.com/vichopkinsx/vichopkinsx/wish/250451880 Social purpose education... finding the problems in education and fixing them. This links to my previous experience about filling in the boxes and no one being brave enough to disagree with the system. If a percentage of pupils are failing literacy for example then behind that is a reason, but how far are people, teachers or pupils willing to go to find out why? Again it relates back to power, who will it take to change the traditional methods of education in to alternative methods instead? But then now with modern society it could be how we make a change rather than who can make the change. With the technological advances in our society it could be that the helps and shift the power of education in to the hands of how the students want to learn. This video shows how powerful the internet can be with 6 million hits on a video about exams and education. https://youtu.be/D-eVF_G_p-Y]]> 2018-04-10 19:02:43 UTC https://padlet.com/vichopkinsx/vichopkinsx/wish/250451880 The pesky theorists vichopkinsx https://padlet.com/vichopkinsx/vichopkinsx/wish/257004983 The same people keep creeping up as I further my research in to power and education, Apple, Bourdieu (who's name is a nightmare to type) and Lyotard who all contribute on the neo-liberal education ideology. In it a nutshell Apple theorises that we are trying to achieve this, yet how we are achieving it isn't formulating a positive representation. Bourdieuoeubf (grr!) conceptualises people in to groups of power (habitus) and Lyotard looks how we can change these ideas. ]]> 2018-05-01 19:00:28 UTC https://padlet.com/vichopkinsx/vichopkinsx/wish/257004983